I haven't blogged much about this because I just find the whole issue so completely infuriating.
I won't restate a lot of what's been stated. Instead, this is a simple primer, whenever some well meaning Democrat (such as Howard Dean) or some Republican who's not trying to sound like a bigot says that we should be able to come together to a respectful dialogue about this, this is the appropriate response:
Let's say that you have a really nice guitar and I don't think you deserve it. So I start rumors telling people you've stolen it. And then a bunch of other people start telling that rumor as well.
You've got the receipts. You paid for it yourself, but at this point, no one knows that and no one's listening to the evidence, because it's common knowledge that everyone knows that you stole the thing, and you're probably planning on stealing others.
The police looked into it and you showed them the paperwork, so they've dropped it. No one's coming forward to claim the guitar was stolen from them, but it's just generally accepted that you've stolen it.
At one point, people start saying things like "well, I think you need to give the guitar back" or "it's about time you came clean about the story behind the guitar."
But there's nothing you can do because you already have come clean, and you've already done everything you're supposed to do, and that's not good enough.
Then things start to get really weird.
One day you come home and your guitar is missing. You have no idea where it went. You file a police report and put up notices about it. But people think you were the thief and start yelling about how finally someone's come forward claiming the guitar that you stole, not realizing it's you.
Then you recognize your guitar being played by a musician in another band. And you accuse him of stealing it from you. You produce the paperwork and the evidence that it's yours.
And he just says "I think we just need to sit down and have a dialogue about this and find a solution that works for everybody."